I got a bit excited when I heard about this because there is a brand new IGA less than 5 minutes from where I live. Not only that, my new IGA is open from 6am to midnight, 7 days a week. I was there are 6:10am yesterday morning picking up sultanas and flaked almonds for my granola bars (post coming soon). How convenient is that?
I went in today to get the ingredients for this post and as I was getting the shaved ham off the bone I had a chat to Karen Nicholls the chef and Charlotte McLoughlin, the deli manager. They are as excited about the new store as I am. Why? Because they stock great local and Australian products like Bill’s Beetroot Marmalade which is like eating a spoonful of heaven. They also carry a good assortment of imported goods too. I bought some black treacle there the other day straight from England, complete with a flag on the can.
About this contest – it’s for recipes by locals for locals – real food by real people and they’d like YOU to enter. All you need to do is go through your Easter recipes and for the Week 1 competition, see which of your recipes use one or more of these ingredients:
Cadbury Cooking Chocolate
Fresh Apples
White Wings Flour
CSR Caster Sugar
Pascall Marshmallows
Next, purchase the ingredients at your local IGA and then create your dish and send IGA the recipe. There are prizes every week for four weeks. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never entered a recipe contest before – Now Is the Time! 🙂
Here’s a good Easter recipe that’s a new favourite at our house. It’s called Saturday Surprise Puffs and it’s made from ingredients you might have in your freezer, refrigerator and pantry all the time. What’s the surprise? Would you put onions, garlic, mushrooms, turmeric and condensed milk together? No, I wouldn’t have said I would either until I tried this. These were truly wonderful.
You can even make these ahead because they’re terrific at room temperature too. I had these done in under an hour and I still had time to empty the dishwasher and put a load of wash on. That’s my kind of recipe. We had these for lunch and there wasn’t one bit left over.
- 2 sheets puff pastry
- 3 tablespoons butter
- ½ medium onion finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
- 1 cup small mushrooms, chopped
- 1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- 2 eggs
- ⅓ cup cream
- ¼ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- ⅛ teaspoon pepper (or to taste)
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley (plus additional for garnish)
- 4 slices shaved ham off the bone
- ¼ cup cream cheese
- ⅛ cup grated cheddar cheese for garnish
- Place frozen puff pastry out to thaw. Preheat oven to 210C/425F.
- In a frying pan on medium heat, add1 tablespoon of butter. When the butter is melted add the garlic, onion and ginger along with a pinch of salt and saute on medium heat until translucent.
- Add 2 tablespoons butter and add in the chopped mushrooms and stir-fry until golden brown.
- Add the turmeric and sweetened condensed milk and cook until the mixture is nearly dry.
- Cut the puff pastry sheets into squares and gently place in a cupcake tin. Use every other hole so the pastry has room to hang over. Gently press pastry into the cupcake holes to form a cup.
- Tear shaved ham and divide amongst the pastry cups.
- Add a small square of cream cheese to each cup.
- Divide the mushroom mixture evenly and place on top of the ham and cream cheese.
- Whisk together the eggs, cream, parsley, salt and pepper and fill the puff pastry cups nearly to the top.
- Place in preheated oven and bake for 5 minutes and then reduce heat to 180C/350F for a further 15 minutes or until the egg mixture has puffed up signaling it's cooked through.
- Remove from oven and garnish with grated cheese and parsley.
- Serve as finger food or alongside a garden salad.
This post was kindly sponsored by IGA Australia.